TL Mafia XVIII - Page 24

As darkness set over the town of Liquidia, a light, warm, wind blew across the land. The moon, now high in the sky, peeked in and out of the clouds and cast ominous shadows throughout the streets. The town was quiet except for a few straggling workers plodding home. The town had been exhausted from the last rebuilding, and many shopkeepers lacked the will and the customers to stay open through the evening.

Mayor Incognito peered out of his apartment building, noticing the tranquility that had recently come to the town. After all, the mafia had been swiftly eliminated last year, and was unlikely to come back. Or so he thought.

For the most part, the town was dark, excepting the moon which occasionally peeked out of the clouds. As Pardoner Kennigit prepared to retire for the night, he noticed that one room in the City Hall building remained lit. It was Qatol, who had been slaving laboriously in drafting a new constitution for the town. Sighing, Qatol decided to call it quits for the night. The new town constitution was almost complete; it only had a few details that needed to be straightened out. So he turned off the light and began his trek home.

Dreamflower, whose house was on the outskirts of town, was nervous at the sight of the weather outside. She was not comforted by the fact that shadows kept appearing around her house, although she knew it was only the moon behind the moving clouds. Suddenly however, she noticed two horsemen stopped on the ridge in the distance. Nowadays, it was strange for anyone to be out this late at night. Wary that the mafia had returned, dreamflower quickly walked back to her closet and retrieved the most accurate gun she could find, and parked near her window, waiting.

Sure enough, the two horsemen began slowly approaching the town. They did not rush across the field, but drifted in and out of the shadows, taking cover from the shadows cast by the clouds. Dreamflower became more nervous, and pointed her gun out the window, waiting for the horsemen to approach. However, she was startled as she noticed a figure walking towards the horsemen. She breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized Qatol. But what was Qatol doing out so late at night? Dreamflower was puzzled, but was snapped back into reality as she noticed the horsemen were only a football field away from her location. Thinking quickly, she decided not to fire a shot, but ran outside to get Qatol to safety. She tried to run in the shadows, but was caught in the middle of the road as the moon pierced through the cloud layer and shone directly on her. The horses neighed, and the first horseman charged dreamflower, spear aimed low at her gut. Dreamflower was blinded from the moonlight that reflected off the horseman, and was a little slow to react. She leaped to the left, and narrowly avoided death. But the second horseman just cackled loudly. Noticing Qatol sneak quietly into the barn to his right, the horseman charged and leaped through the thin walls of the barn, landing straight on Qatol, who died instantly. In a panic, dreamflower ran back into her house to grab her gun, but it was futile. The ground felt moist, and dreamflower slipped as she ran through her front door. The house immediately combusted into flames as a torch flew through the window, igniting the oil-soaked residence. dreamflower’s last thoughts were confusion, for she thought that the torch flew through the window opposite the two horsemen.

Incognito was almost falling asleep standing up, but then noticed a house in flames in the distance. Immediately taking action, he raced down stairs and called up Kennigit to take care of the incident. By the time that both Kennigit and Incognito were racing towards dreamflower’s burning house, there was more commotion in the streets. Panicked citizens walked out of their houses to figure out what was happening, but they quickly retreated back to the safety of their homes once they heard gunshots and a hyena-like noise outside. The mayor and pardoner stopped in the town square, pausing for a moment to come up with a plan. But no plan would arise. The crazed psychopathic noises approached swiftly, and Incognito had no time to react as a shadowy figure leapt from a roof above and ripped his head off, still laughing as it raced down another alley leading out of the town square. Kennigit had time to get his thoughts together, and swiftly chased after the figure. But his path was suddenly blocked by one of the horsemen. Fearing that his end was near, Kennigit hid behind a barrel of wine, and was astonished that the horseman did not pursue him. However, at the end of the alleyway, he noticed a light getting brighter and brighter in magnitude. He heard a scowl, as the horseman turned around and fled the other way, riding as if he were either blinded or drunk. Kennigit emerged from behind the wine barrel, thinking that an angel had saved the town. Unfortunately, Kennigit did not find favor from the now radiant creature, and exploded into a shower of blue light. A few moments later, however, and the town was once again consumed with darkness.